The rugby player admitted he was unsure at first about appearing on the dating show but realised that it would be a good opportunity to raise awareness of his conditions.

Tom was more than happy to chat about his experience on the dating show (Image: ITV)

"It's good that I raised awareness as well. I've had mothers with children with Tourette's and Asperger's thanking me, saying 'you're an inspiration', so I can't fault that."

"It is what it is, you've got to get on with it. You can't change who you are."

He explained that symptoms of his Asperger's means he finds it hard to show emotion, which prompted the Loose Women audience to 'ahh' when he said: "Obviously I love my mum, but I won't give her a hug or anything like that."

Tom was in the first episode of The Undateable series five (Image: Channel 4)

Tom's mum Elaine was sat in the audience and she said she backed his decision to go on the Channel 4 documentary for both romantic reasons and to raise awareness of his condition.

"He's a lovely son, you just want the best for your children. In our eyes, he's always been Tom, there's nothing wrong with him.

"We are just overwhelmed with all the support this week, we just were not expecting this to happen."

Tom also spoke about his hopes of setting up a charity to help others get into sport who also suffer from Tourette's and Asperger's.

* Loose Women is on weekdays, ITV at 12.30pm, and The Undateables returns on Mondays, Channel 4 at 9pm